472 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PICAMIJE — CUCULIFOMMES. 
sort of colony of Communists uniting to build a large nest to be used in common. The eggs 
are greenish, overlaid with a white chalky substance, easily rubbed off when fresh. 
425. C. a'ni. (The Brazilian name. Fig. 323.) Ani. Black Witch. Savanna Blackbird. 
Bill smooth or with a few transverse wrinkles ; culmen regularly curved. Color black, with 
violet and steel-blue reflections, duller below, the lanceolate feathers of the head and neck 
with bronze borders. Iris brown. Length 13.00-15.00 ; wing 6.00 ; tail 8.00 ; tarsus 1.50. 
Tropical America ; West Indies ; Florida ; accidental near Philadelphia. 
Fig. 323. — Ani, i nat. size. (From Brehm.) 
426. C. sulciros'tris. (Lat. sulcus, a groove ; rostris, pertaining to the beak.) Groove -billed 
Ani. Bill with three distinct grooves on upper mandible, parallel with the regularly curved 
culmen. Black, with steel-blue and violet reflections, more olive- 
brown on belly ; scaly feathers of head and neck bronzy, of breast, 
back and wings metallic greenish. Wings with 4th and 5th 
quills longest, 3d little shorter, 2d nearly an inch, 1st nearly 2 
inches from point of wing. Bill more than twice as high as 
broad at the base; 0.85 high, 0.37 broad, 1.20 long. Bill and 
feet black, scaling grayish in some places. Iris brown. Length 
14.50; extent 17.00; wing 5.50-6.00 ; tail 7.50-8.00, graduated 2 
inches ; tarsus, or middle toe and claw, 1.50. Tropical America ; 
N. to Texas in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Eggs said to be . 
usually five, and no peculiarity of nesting noted ; nest of twigs, 
Fig. 324. — Head of Geococcyx. 
(After Cassin.) 
lined with fibrous roots, in a tree or bush. 
